While digital multifunction peripherals having a plurality of functions such as copying, printer and faxing are popularized as image forming apparatuses forming an image on a recording medium, in recent years, digital multifunction peripherals used in offices are connected to a LAN and have a network function equivalent to a network environment of terminal PCs.
Moreover, also in a method for authenticating a user, devices capable of using not only a conventional password input system but also an authentication token such as a non-contact type IC card are put to practical use. In addition, digital multifunction peripherals capable of realizing uniform management of user information by transferring an authentication function to an external server are also popularized.
On the other hand, it is requested for a workflow system that executes each of a plurality of processing in the predetermined order to create an application program including input/output of documents to/from a digital multifunction peripheral. As prior patent documents for realizing this function, for example, “an apparatus for processing input image data in accordance with procedure prescribed in instruction data” (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-333541), “a device which appends metadata corresponding to document processing instruction data to document data and commences document processing in accordance with the contents of the metadata” (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-259211) and the like are disclosed.
According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-333541, a workflow including input/output work of documents to/from a multifunction peripheral can be executed, however, the operation for execution needs to be performed by a terminal PC of a user.
Moreover, according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-259211, it is possible to cause a server to execute a workflow based on information relating to the workflow which is selected with scanning of an original by a user. However, this method is limited to transmit a scanned image.
In the input/output work of the document to/from the multifunction peripheral, it is necessary to deal with a paper medium for a main body of the multifunction peripheral. Especially, in the scanning operation, processing of the flow stops until the original is set on the multifunction peripheral to execute scanning. Thus, it is natural that the workflow can be selected and executed using an operation panel of the multifunction peripheral.
Here, a user who performs a log-in operation by putting a non-contact type IC card close to the multifunction peripheral does not need to touch the operation panel of the multifunction peripheral because it is different from a log-in operation by inputting a password. With this in mind, it can be said that it remains a point to be improved that the operation of the operation panel of the multifunction peripheral is necessary to select and execute the workflow program. It is preferable that the purpose of the work is completed more quickly by putting the IC card close to the multifunction peripheral for executing a series of operations unique to the card.
Further, it is also considered that a part of the workflow program requires, at the time of execution of the program, user credential information based on a unique management system which is different from a user management system used by an image forming apparatus as processing necessary for sign-on. From a viewpoint of security, it is not appropriate to store credential information in the image forming apparatus and servers, but in this case, there is a merit that the user credential information stored in a secure storage area of the authentication token can be safely given to an arbitrary program by using an authentication token such as an IC card.